IL State LLW Storage facility Guidelines

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

Below is an article that discusses IL guidelines to select a LLW 
storage site. The rhettoric is already beginning, and as was 
discussed recently regarding DOE storage facilities, it's just time 
to do it and stop the political jockeying.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Dec. 19  -- An Illinois government panel 
adopted guidelines it will use to select a site in about three years
for a low-level radioactive waste storage facility. 
 The panel working under the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety set
criteria Thursday that a facility for disposing of medical and other
low-level contaminated waste would have to comply with, and the end
result is that it likely will be placed in a rural part of central or
northern Illinois. 
 Nuclear Safety Director Thomas Ortciger said fault lines and  
earthquake concerns rule out just about everyplace south of Interstate
70, while population density makes the Chicago area an unlikely site. 
 To reduce risk of contamination from the waste, criteria was set to 
isolate a facility from rivers or other bodies of water that could
create flooding roblems. 
 A site also must be underlain by geographic materials inhibiting the 
 movement of radioactive materials in the event of a leak. 
 A state panel has spent the past three years preparing criteria, and 
 state scientific surveys of potential sites will take up the next 15
months. 
 The issue is controversial because of public opposition to having 
such a facility near their communities. The last time the state tried
to locate a low-level nuclear waste facility, local opposition was
intense enough to throw the process off track. 
 Ortciger said he hopes the process will work smoothly this time, and 
 Gov. Jim Edgar said he hopes a site can be found that will not upset
local residents. ``But we have to take the overall wellbeing of the
state into consideration,'' he said. 

Sandy Perle
Director, Technical Operations
ICN Dosimetry Division
Office: (800) 548-5100 Ext. 2306 
Fax: (714) 668-3149

E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com    

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